The prior art relative to railway hand brake systems recognizes basically only two types of hand brakes. The first type is the standard drop staff hand brake, which utilizes a horizontal hand wheel, while the second type is a vertical wheel hand brake. The limited market demand does not permit the profitable sale of a wider variety of hand brakes. Accordingly, it is necessary for designers to use one of these two brakes or else face exorbitant expense in the production of a custom unit.
In the past, designers have been able to use these two brakes for most situations but recent changes in safety regulations coupled with the development of ever larger flat cars have created problems which our invention resolves. It is now required that a single hand brake must operate at least 50% of the wheels on the car and be capable of producing enough force to meet the minimum hand brake force requirements. With very large and heavy flat cars this requirement demands a vertical wheel, high powered hand brake. However, a vertical wheel, high powered hand brake extends above the level of the flat car's deck and interferes with the loading of the flat car thus reducing its utility. The present invention avoids this problem.